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Join our SkyWatch hosts for conversation highlighting news from the world of astronomy. Listen in via your computer or MP3 player as they bring the latest discoveries down to Earth. SkyWatch also includes HubbleWatch, a round-up of news from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

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We may not have seen the end of the Stardust mission.
The mission, whose probe scooped up samples of comet
material before returning to Earth in January 2006, still has a
mothership in space. Analysis of the samples offers enticing
clues about the formation of comets and our solar system.
Researchers are considering whether the Stardust mothership,
now in hibernation, could be used to take pictures of Comet
Tempel 1 - specifically, the part blown open in July 2006
by another comet mission, Deep Impact.
Lots of ideas are submitted to NASA for creating new missions
and reusing old ones. The agency convenes a panel to fairly
review all these ideas and see which ones are affordable.